2026 – Asher Larsen Larsen – Maple Mountain High School HS

Experience

My story changed when I was five. My parents got divorced. We lived in an apartment. One night my mom comes into mine and my sisters room, we had no idea what was happening. She told us to get out of bed and grab some clothes and get into our grandparents car. We were very scared. I don’t really remember anything after that but I have a memory of being in my grandparents house after we moved in not knowing where any of my things were. I later learned that my parents got a divorce. My sister, mom, and I stayed in my grandparents house till I was thirteen. During this time I would go over to my biological dads house once during the week and during the weekends. This would fluxuate depending on the year and how old we were, but it was a hard change to keep going back and forth from house to house. My mom and grandparents are apart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but my biological father left this religion. I am also apart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and have been ever since I was born. It was hard going from one house to the other where one was in a religion and the other wasn’t. I never doubted my faith but I didn’t truley understand it. I would just go to go because I thought it was right. Now that I am eighteen years old I know that it is the right path for me. My mom then got remarried in 2020 to my step-father who I now call dad. This was as big change for me and my family. Before she got married again I always wanted a real dad that was there for me, and that I knew was actually going to treat my family the way that they deserved to be treated. It was hard for me but now that I have my step-dad in my life I am a lot more happy. During this time where my mom got remarried we moved cities. I had to go to a different school meet new people but this all happened during covid, so it was all very difficult. I was never the most outgoing kid but moving and not interacting with people made me even less so. I was very hard throughout us moving during my sixth grade year into my seventh grade year and not being able to have the same friends that I had when I was in elementary. It has been a very hard learning curve being able to learn to talk to people and being more social. I have figured it out for the most part. We then moved again the summer inbetween my seventh grade year and my eigth grade year. I then again had no friends and had to start over from the beginning. I am very glad that I have been able to figure myself out and make myself a better human because of these experiences. I now have stopped going to my biological dads house. He has been doing drugs ever since I was little and has continued to do them even until now. It has been a scary experience but I have been able to push past that and become better because of that reason. All of these experiences have taught me to be a more resiliant and patient person. I have been able to figure out how to be self reliable but also rely on others to help me and not just shutting myself off. I am myself and that is all I need to be. I don’t need to doubt in myself because I am able to go through all of those challenges and build myself to be better. No one can take that away from me and I love myself for that.